|
|
|
|
|
On Friday, February 3, 2017, Petras Auštrevičius, rapporteur for Moldova to the European Parliament, issued a press release, requesting the authorities – the Presidency, the Parliament and the Government – to do their best to fully ensure the independence and freedom of press in the Republic of Moldova. In his appeal, he expressed concern about “the circumstances under which certain independent media, such as Jurnal TV and TV 7, are forced to carry out their activity”. In the European official’s opinion, the various administrative and legal obstacles faced by media in fulfilling their duties “cannot be justified in any way”. “I am appealing to all authorities and policy makers of Moldova to do their best in order not to impede the functioning of the independent press that is guaranteed in Moldova”, the press release says.
More
|
|
|
The Regulation concerning the publication of rulings on the single courts portal, developed by the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM), caused discontent among the media. Thus, whenever previously anyone wished to find out whether a person was involved in any criminal proceedings, all they had to do was access the portal instante.justice.md and type in the person’s name to get the necessary information. Now this search option has been excluded, and information can only the found by the number and type of the criminal case. Moreover, Item 15 of the same Regulation states that “the legal assistant shall depersonalize the court ruling if necessary”. Journalists called the SCM’s decision “an unprecedented step back in the history of transparency in Moldova”.
More
The issue of depersonalization of court rulings has also been discussed during SCM’s meeting on Tuesday, February 7. The portal bizlaw.md cites the objection expressed at the meeting by Mihai Poalelungi, Chairman of the Supreme Court of Justice: “We should revise the Regulation. It goes beyond the law and broadly interprets the so-called rules concerning violation of personal data. The attitude taken towards depersonalization is a wrong one.” In their turn, lawyers from Promo-LEX Association issued on Wednesday, February 8, a legal opinion stating that “there are no legal grounds for names of persons involved in the act of justice not to be published on courts’ websites.”
More
|
|
|
Some officials tend to abusively interpret the Law on Personal Data Protection, thus affecting the work of journalists. It is the conclusion of most participants of the public debate “Personal Data, Between Protecting Officials and Limiting Access to Information” that was held on Monday, February 13. The event was part of a big campaign to support investigative journalists, launched on January 26 this year by a number of media and human rights NGOs. The debate was attended by representatives of media and law NGOs, lawyers, MPs and representatives of the National Center for Personal Data Protection.
More
|
|
|
Representatives of 19 civil society organizations, who participated on February 13, 2017 in the public debate “Personal Data, Between Protecting Officials and Limiting Access to Information”, signed a joint declaration, signaling about the abusive manner in which some authorities tend to interpret the Law on Personal Data Protection. According to the declaration, most frequently reporters complain of limitation of access to information by the Ministry of Justice (specifically, the courts web portal), the General Prosecutor’s Office, the National Integrity Authority, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Presidency, as well as many state-owned companies (Moldtelecom, Metalferos, Registru, Poșta Moldovei, Moldovagaz etc.). Signatories asked all public authorities to apply the Law on Protection of Personal Data in line with European standards when processing any requests for information.
More
A number of media NGOs, such as the Independent Journalism Center, the Association of Independent Press, “Acces-Info” Center, the Press Freedom Committee, the Association of Independent TV Journalists, the Journalistic Investigations Center and the Electronic Press Association, along with the Institute for Public Policies signed a declaration concerning a statement published by “Ziarul de Garda” on Tuesday, February 21, stating that a fake website had been using the newspaper’s name and stealing its media content. The outlet’s investigation confirmed that the website was indeed an electronic phantom using the name of “Ziarul de Garda” and disseminating materials written by anonymous authors or stolen from other websites, causing damage to online press consumers. Media NGOs qualified the identity theft as an illegal action and appealed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the General Prosecutor’s Office asking them to carry out an urgent investigation of the forgery against “Ziarul de Garda” and take action against the persons that infringed the integrity of the investigative periodical’s image.
More
|
|
|
The Independent Journalism Center (IJC) continues monitoring the 12 TV channels that it monitored during the elections campaign. Thus, on Wednesday, February 22, the IJC launched the fourth monitoring report, which covers the post-election period – from December 1, 2016 to February 1, 2017. The report reveals decrease in the intensity of violations of ethics and in the use of manipulation techniques, but finds that they did not disappear completely. The top violation is still omission – a technique broadly used by journalists to avoid reporting about certain events or including into news the details that might disadvantage the owner of their media outlet or advantage their rivals. According to Viorica Zaharia, the media expert who prepared the report, elements of information manipulation were found especially in the newscasts of Publika TV, Prime TV, Accent TV, and, in a lesser degree, on Sputnik, Deschide.md, Pan.md and RTR.
More
|
|
|
The Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) presented on Thursday, February 2, 2017, its activity report for 2016. Among other things, the BCC found that there is “a large number of Russian channels” in Moldova, and explains this trend by the fact that retransmission of channels from Romania and the entire European space would cost more than retransmission of Russian channels. Regarding the behavior of broadcasters during the presidential elections campaign, the BCC recognized that the 38 sanctions it applied to broadcasters did not have the expected effect. Other problems are delay in transition from analog to digital television, attempts to amend the legislation of Gagauzia with the intention to institute censorship on broadcast media, similar phenomena in broadcasting on the left bank of the Nistru, etc.
More
“NTV Moldova” and “Accent TV” television channels received public warnings at the meeting of the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) on February 10, 2017, for multiple discriminating reports during the elections campaign. The sanction came after BCC member Marian Onceanu-Hadirca took note of the fact that in the period of November 06-13, 2016, “NTV Moldova” and “Accent TV” aired materials that incited to hatred on the grounds of religion, and at the meeting of December 2016 she requested them to be analyzed regarding compliance with the law. The monitoring that followed showed violation of Article 6 paragraph (1) of the Broadcasting Code, which stipulates: “Broadcasters are prohibited to air programs that contain any form of incitement to hatred on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, sex. It is prohibited to use sexist language and violent and degrading images of men and women.”
More
|
|
|
The Government is preparing a draft law to supplement Article 27 of the current Broadcasting Code, “Withdrawal of broadcasting license”, “in order to eliminate some loopholes.” If the draft law is adopted, license holders will be obliged to start broadcasting within at most three months, and not within one year, as the current code requires. “This draft law will rule out delays in the start of broadcasting through an electronic communications network used under a contract, as it will specify and define some reasonable terms for this purpose while keeping the current term of one year for other broadcasters,” the explanatory note reads. Media expert Ion Bunduchi explains what can happen if the parliament adopts this change.
More
|
|
|
TV7 television will be reorganized, a new owner will hold the majority stake, and the broadcast schedule will change essentially. About the reorganization of TV7 Chiril Lucinschi, MP of the Liberal Democratic Party, announced on Wednesday, February 22, at a press briefing, where he said he was leaving his MP mandate and withdrawing from the party because he was going to engage into a European project that is incompatible with his political activity. So far, his children, Alexandra and Petru Lucinschi, held 100% of the channel’s shares. After a group of journalists won a grant from the European Endowment for Democracy, the Lucinschi family decided to give up 75% of the shares to an association of journalists, which will take over the channel’s management. TV7 Director Cristina Gutu confirmed that discussions are currently being held with some journalists who would be part of the association.
More
|
|
|
The Independent Journalism Center (IJC) has published its annual report “Media Situation Index (MSI) in the Republic of Moldova in 2016”. The document is an evaluation of the media situation in Moldova in 2016 based on 7 relevant indicators, namely: legal framework regulating the media; political context; economic environment; professional environment; quality of journalism; information security from the media perspective; security of journalists. This methodology had been chosen because it provides a diagnosis for the media as a whole and for every aspect/indicator in part. From this perspective, the MSI points out the areas where intervention is appropriate in order to improve the situation of the media for the benefit of the citizen and society. It ends with recommendations and conclusions, as well as relevant annexes.
More
|
|
| In February, the Media Azi shows covered topics of current interest. The 31st edition discussed the topic of limited access to court rulings, which is a new obstacle for journalists. At the show, journalist Anastasia Nani as moderator discussed with guests Valentina Grigoris, deputy director of the Courts Administration Agency under the Ministry of Justice, and journalist Mariana Rata of the Journalistic Investigations Center. The 32nd edition resumed the topic of transition to digital television. Since Moldova is the only country in Europe that kept delaying transition to digital broadcasting, the show’s protagonists – journalist Nicolae Negru and member of the Electronic Press Association Alexandru Dorogan – wondered why the Government has not yet developed the policies and strategies needed for it. Who and why sabotages transition to digital broadcasting? |
|
|
|
Ro
En
Рy
